Review of the ReMarkable 2 Tablet

Hi, friends!

I hesitate to mention this one, because I want to talk about tools that are accessible to almost everyone, and this one’s expensive. On the other hand, realizing how many people have things like iPads, I guess expensive gadgets are within reach for many, although some might have to save up for them longer than others, and although they are also not within reach for many. (The fact is, if you’re reading this, you’re wealthy compared to many in the world. Even if you have a lot less than many other Americans and can’t exactly just buy anything you want. Or all basic needs when you need them.)

Anyway. If you know you can’t afford something optional like this, please disregard. But for those who might be able to afford it, allow me to squeee for a bit?

And maybe later we’ll talk more serious topics and/or more accessible tools, but for now, let’s talk fun Christmas presents, yes?

So first off, the reMarkable 2 tablet is awesome. 😁 Probably lots of tablets can already do some of the things I’ll describe after this, even though I haven’t played with these kinds of features before. What distinguishes the reMarkable 2 from other tablets is the e-ink and the texture of the screen. The screen is still smooth, but it feels kind of like the cover of a nice trade paperback, the kind with a matte finish that doesn’t take visible fingerprints. It’s just a tiny bit more textured than the screen of my Kindle Paperwhite, and it feels like writing on nice paper, instead of simulating the writing experience on glass. (Although apparently it is glass, frosted glass. Huh, cool.)

The marketing materials and the reviews say it’s the world’s thinnest tablet, and I believe this without fact checking it further. However, it feels nice and solid — not so heavy that it’s uncomfortable to hold, but not so light that it feels flimsy.

The other thing that distinguishes it from other tablets is what it can’t do. The review of it on The Verge says,

“But that short list of features encompasses the entirety of what the reMarkable can do: draw, write, read, and share.

“According to reMarkable, that rather limited list of features is an intentional design choice. The company argues that the goal of the tablet is to offer a more advanced version of traditional paper — one that’s unbound by limits of physical space and more easily shared in a digital age — but without weighing down the experience with the distractions and temptations of a full-fledged tablet.

“The reMarkable 2 wants to be for writing what a Kindle is for reading: a bespoke device that’s the master of its digitized domain, instead of a jack-of-all-trade device like an iPad or Android tablet.

“Unfortunately, while the new model is $200 cheaper than the original, at $399 — plus $49 for the basic, eraser-less pen and $69 for a case — it’s still a hefty price to pay for a nicer writing surface and less distractions.

“The reason that the Kindle works as a unitasking device is that it starts at about $80 (before factoring in Amazon’s frequent sales). It’s cheap enough to justify its more limited and focused featureset. The $399 reMarkable, on the other hand, is actually more expensive than a far more functional $329 iPad, which leaves it as a luxury device for the few who can justify spending more on a marginally nicer writing experience, rather than a true paper replacement for the digital age.”

Reviews like this one (and ones that said its handwriting to text conversion isn’t all that great, etc.) made me hesitant to ask for the reMarkable 2 for Christmas, and my husband and I decided that he would go ahead and order me one, with my full knowledge, if I would commit to returning it within the 30 days of receipt for a full refund if I didn’t love it.

(Spoiler alert: I love it. Where I had written on my calendar to return it if necessary, I now have written to buy it a case.)

So why do I disagree with The Verge? They say,

“But the high price tag and limited features still don’t make a case for why a digital version of paper should exist in a world where tablets have already long since surpassed their analogue counterparts. The reMarkable 2 is a convincing digital evolution of paper. But why be paper when you could be a whole computer instead?"

Well, maybe it would be different if I already had and regularly used a tablet (our family owns one, I think maybe I’ve used it a tiny bit?), but since I don’t, and since I already have a fully functioning smartphone, laptop, and desktop computer, why would I want another whole computer when I could have amazing digital paper??!

I feel strongly about this.

I enjoyed the Mashable “ReMarkable 2 review: A magic legal pad from the future,” which opens with,

“I’m writing this review — well, the first draft of it — by hand, on one of the coolest writing devices it has ever been my pleasure to use. How much pleasure? Let’s just say that I’ve scribbled my way through 21 pages so far, in under a day, just for the heck of it. If this prolific sensation isn’t hypergraphia, a curious condition where you can’t stop writing, it is at least somewhere in the same neurological neighborhood."

😁 Sounds good to me. And probably to most writers!

Yeah, if you weren’t writing by hand much anyway, eh, maybe don’t get it. But if you love bullet journaling and love your bullet journals and would like using a device that could basically hold every volume of your bullet journals in the future? The reMarkable 2. It’s the best of both worlds. I can still organize the way I organize my bullet journals, with an Index and page numbers, provided I commit to not moving pages around or adding any new pages in the middle that would mess up the pagination, and I’m fine with that. But I can also copy or cut and paste! I can duplicate, edit in layers, try a “calligraphy pen,” then erase and try again!

The “templates” that come with the reMarkable 2 are bare bones — things like, do you want to write on lined paper or blank, or do you want small dots, or blank sheet music? (Amazing and all, but not what I would normally call a template.) But you can easily create your own custom templates (even if that’s not what they’re called in the reMarkable-verse) by using different layers for certain things, like a weekly calendar or a habit chart. When you’ve filled up one page or spread and want a new one, you just select the page or pages, hit “duplicate,” and then go into the layers, keeping what you would’ve copied and erasing what you want to change. In other words, if you ever have or have wanted to put a new routine in a sheet protector so you can mark things off as you go and then erase them later, without pulling out your phone and using another app, you’re in luck. (Yes, it’s another device. But it’s fast and non-distracting.)

I’ve even used one page to draw little pictures my possibly-ADHD-5yo can check off as she gets ready for preschool. That may lose her interest and stop working for her at some point, but happily that point has not yet arrived.

And if at times you forgot to use the layer you wanted and they’re a little mixed up, no sweat, it’s still pretty easy to cut and paste what you want, even if, like me, your lines of text often overlap a little. Look at this!

It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s pretty easy to fix with a couple passes, even when your handwriting is messy and overlapping a lot. Especially when you finally realize they’re just going by a very simple rule — if your Marker (pen, stylus) cuts through a line or marking, it isn’t selected; if your Marker surrounds a line (or dot, or whatever), it is selected. Sometimes this makes “cutting” way better than just erasing. And if you want to move a bigger chunk, that means more of the writing will be in the middle away from the edges, and it’s even easier.

Here’s me fixing it “with a couple passes,” after dragging one line away from the others:

Huzzah.

Now, just for the sake of example, let’s say I add a second layer and add a date heading to this using the calligraphy pen setting, medium thickness, then go back to the thin ballpoint pen setting for a third layer, adding a couple checkboxes and crossing off one sentence.

Then I decide to delete the third layer, then the second, and we’re back.

Ooh, and one of the templates looks like this:

Any fuzziness is the fault of my slapdash photography, not the tablet.

At first I was a teensy bit annoyed with it, because I like my heading to be more seamless, I wanted to write the day’s date like this:

But then of course I realized that if I use and reuse the same basic schedule every week, modifying it instead of building each schedule from scratch, well, this format works great.

Here the 2nd layer isn’t deleted, just hidden for the moment, so I can see what’s in which layer.

I thought at first that you might want to use the later layers for what doesn’t change as much instead of for what does — a notebook always defaults back to writing and editing in the first layer when you open it up, and forgetting that can be a little bit annoying — but then I remembered you can change the order of the layers, so voila. I think the layers are meant more for artists and drawing than for writing, but they’re a lot of fun and pretty useful regardless.

And despite my blurry photography, with the beautiful, crisp display you can see my “calligraphy” looks sort of like some handwriting font or other, which is kind of cool. I mean, it won’t actually improve your handwriting, if yours isn’t very good, but it still sets off what is there very nicely.

Speaking of which, I really like the “page overview” within a notebook. I feel like my bullet journal pages do very nicely as thumbnails!

Deliberately not a focused closeup (nor worth your time to embiggen and sharpen), but in person I can see at a glance where I have a weekly calendar, where I’ve written my daily notes, and the headings for other modules.

Well, there you have it. I have squeeed. I’m a squeeer. Mmm.

Your Turn

What do you think, do you want one now, or is this not really your “thing?” (Or maybe you’re my one reader who is literally selling your possessions, giving to the poor, and going to become a nun, but I digress… Though that probably is a much better way to lose your life so that you will save it, so maybe it’s not a digression, mmm.)

What was your favorite Christmas present? Your favorite that you received, and/or your favorite that you gave to someone else? Or that you’re going to give to someone else, but still haven’t quite yet, because you’re like me and not always exactly on top of things? 😉

Love in Christ,

Marcy